4 



Descriptions of New 



species?* If again, I collect beetles as small and inconspicuous 

 as the Trichopteryx described below, and consider at the same 

 time, that, although they are in certain localities of common 

 occurrence, no professional Coleopterologist has ever collected 

 before me in this Island; if, moreover, again my library offers 

 nothing that could possibly refer to them individually (there 

 being hardly an Asiatic species mentioned), — am I not under 

 these circumstances justified in considering them as un- 

 described ? Decidedly. — Circumstances like these would in- 

 deed be altogether conclusive, if there was not a chance of 

 the beetle's occurring in some neighbouring country, and its 

 having thence found its way into the normal collections of 

 Europe. The possibility of such being the case, enhances 

 the difficulties of the case, of course., very materially ; and I 

 am forced to admit, that the means of overcoming them are 

 very unreliable. One deficiency descriptions of new species 

 furnished under these circumstances will almost always have, 



* Synonymy is, and always will be, an unavoidable evil to which 

 descriptive science is liable under any circumstances. My arguments 

 are merely intended to uphold the possibility to reduce it to such a na- 

 ture, and to limit it to so small an extent, as to be of little importance 

 if weighed against the merits the publications in which it occurs may be 

 possessed of in other respects, and, therefore, to be pardonable. In case, 

 however, I should eventually ascertain that I am mistaken on this point, 

 I shall then abandon my pursuits, or at all events, my present mode of 

 following them up. I feel certain, that every enthusiastic naturalist, 

 who has travelled in foreign parts, will support my cause, and understand 

 and appreciate my striving to become the herald of my own discoveries. 



I am well aware, that there is more than one way to attain this end, 

 and that the one I have selected is perhaps not the best ; but circumstances 

 have hitherto barred me from those upon which I might lay myself less 

 open to censure. In positions like mine only, where they are my prin- 

 cipal support, books are well tested ; and whoever has tested them under 

 such circumstances, will know that much of the synonymy created 

 abroad, is referrible to them, and not to the student. 



